The Daydream Drifter Quilt

I've been working on the most delicious quilt lately.... and I was asked to post about it over at the Shannon Fabrics blog. Click here for the real post - which includes my tips for quilting with double gauze...

What's fun is that the minute I was on their website looking at what they had available in their new double gauze line, this quilt design popped into my head.

I  loved making the quilt so much that I wrote a free pattern for it.

You can find it here.
DAYDREAM DRIFTER QUILT

The Still Waters Quilt Pattern

A few years ago, I sketched up a quilt design that made me think of a surfer type image... I drew it up, measured it out, and then sewed nothing of it. Then my quilt guild, the LAMQG, had a solids challenge with a deadline this past March and I knew it was finally time to make this thing.
I've never been one for small quilts, I can't help but to think, "if I'm making this out
of fabric, someone should at least be able to cuddle up under it if they ever wanted to..." - so I made it big. (I kind of end up doing that with every quilt I make)

Here are pics of my original #stillwatersquilt with both of my boys for scale

I finished it in time for our challenge and then two days later I broke my femur falling down the stairs. That was not fun. What was actually pretty great about the 8 weeks that I spent on the couch was that it gave me time to create - time to draw, take some online classes and eventually even sew a little. But this was my favorite part of that - I finally had the time to sit down and write a quilt pattern. One that was not for a company to use and then call their own, but for me to release myself and then launch on craftsy. I had been so encouraged by the success of free downloads by the Flip Flop Quilt Block - which was basically a little sister to this quilt idea, that I knew I had to try to make a pattern that I could sell.  I simplified the shapes and measurements to make it even more user-friendly and now it has launched. I'm so happy every time someone downloads a copy. It makes me thrilled to know that I am a part of someone else's creative process.

You can find the pattern on craftsy, by clicking here.

 Here are some of my favorite images of the #stillwatersquilt as made by my pattern testers. Almost all of them ended up making more than one of the quilt - they were so excited about how fast it came together. The pattern has sizes from crib sized to king sized included and the simplicity makes it a great quilt to give as a gift.

Flip Flop Quilt Block

This past February, I was asked by my fellow board members at the LAMQG to fill in for a Block of the Month Pattern for our guild.  Someone else had backed out and there was no one to finish off the 12th month of the project. It wasn't something that I thought I had the confidence to try, but I am so glad I was asked, because it pushed me to try something new. As you will see over the next few posts, this little block has changed a lot for me!

I went back to my sketches and found that I had a quilt design that had never come to fruition. It seemed a little bit clever to me, so I decided it might work and chose to simplify it and make a little sister version to it that could be a simple block design for my fellow guild members.

Thus the Flip Flop Quilt Block was born. 

(YOU CAN DOWNLOAD IT HERE)

My guild seemed to like it so I opened up a little craftsy pattern store and uploaded it. What I didn't expect was for it to downloaded every single day by multiple people. I couldn't believe that it was that popular!

The block is simple - even a beginner can have a fun time making it and there are a lot of cool ways to lay it out.













 It's also really kind of a fun one to modify. I've seen a few really cool versions already - here are some of them...

made by @modernmanson for the @ocmqg block swap

made by @cookbakequilt who also sized the blocks down a little too

Twin girl quilts

It's pretty great to get photos back of the quilts (or art) I send out into the world. Today's photo is of the quilts that a co-designer friend from my days as a textile designer commissioned for twin girls she knows. They are a beautiful addition to this very modern nursery. Thanks, Lauren, for thinking of me!

Dave's Quilt

It can be tough to make a quilt for a man. There are entire books devoted to what to sew for a guy... My brother in law was turning 40 last year and I wanted to make something special for him. So I used two of the most masculine fabric lines I knew to create something for him - I used a charm pack of Architextures and a strip roll of World Tour by David Butler for his Parson Grey line. The end result was so beautiful. I made simple improv log cabin blocks which are a real favorite for me and on the back I used my leftovers to make one giant Log Mansion. In the end, I couldn't decide if I liked the back even more than the front.

An experimental mini quilt

I'm not really one to make small quilts. I really like things best when they are big and useful. But the truth is that I also find it hard to pack a punch into something small enough to make it worth the effort.
This little quilt is something of an experiment, something I want to try big, but had to try small first to see if it worked.
I wanted to incorporate my doodle drawings into my hand quilting and see what black thread looked like against a lighter background too. I also tried doubling the pearl cotton to see if liked that (not a ton, though I love the look)... So basically I needed to try all those things smaller... Also, I'd heard that Crayola washable market is a great way to mark a quilt, but was afraid to try on something big... It didn't fully wash out, so I'm glad it was a small project...

And then... At the end, I have this little beauty. Which I love. And don't really know what to do with except pin it to the wall in the studio to think of more ideas... I do think we we all be seeing more quilting like this in my future though!

Quilting for work vs fun

On my machine today... A custom quilt for a customer. It's not my color comfort zone and I'm learning a lot about equilateral triangles, but I'm enjoying it. I know I've mentioned here that I'm committed to working on things that inspire me from here on out... Here's a funny fact... The part of me that used to be a corporate designer - working with customers to get them a custom solution... Still inspires me too.

So I have my art side, and also my "designer" side - both of which I love. I'm just committed to not make things that DON'T inspire me anymore just because I had fabric lying around that I needed to use up. I've done that for years... I've played with the idea that it takes the "Q" out of Quilting and it changes it into a "G".... i.e. GUILTING... Not a fun hobby.

So here's to less Guilting and more Quilting, whether it's for fun or money. And always finding the joy in what's in front of us.

The Betsy Travel Bag (Blog Hop)

I am really excited to be a part of the Betsy Travel Bag blog hop! When I was first chosen to be one of the pattern testers, I found it so hard to pick out my fabrics... There were so many great places on this bag to stick little coordinating prints without looking cheesy or overwrought.
I finally decided on a Denyse Schmidt print that I kept ordering without ever realizing I'd double and triple ordered it. I figured that I must really love that fabric if I kept on ordering it, accidentally. And then with this fun newsprint as an accent... I started to get really excited.

I got to work on it as soon as I worked out the fabric choices and got my hardware. (On a side note, one of my biggest notes to the pattern company was that "someone should sell hardware kits for the Betsy Travel Bag so sewists don't have to find everything themselves" (that was ALREADY their plan. Lucky for you - you can find them at the Snuggly Monkey Shop www.snugglymonkey.com... I had to order bulk of most of my hardware (not really a problem since I have already made two of these bags with plans for at least 2 more)

Back to the bag.... As I was making it, I had to marvel at all the cool pockets and features I was putting in. I told someone, "it's like a catalogue of all the coolest pocket techniques". One night when the bag was nearly complete, my husband came in and saw it.

The way he looked at it told me that he didn't think this looked like an ordinary quilted duffel bag. He was really impressed with how "professional" it looked - I think it was all the nice hardware, personally.

I began to think... Could I figure out a way to make him a masculine GUY version of the Betsy Travel Bag? How would I go about that?

Valentine's Day was coming up... Could I do it? I had just bought some gorgeous prewashed chambray from a friend who had a bolt...

I went into my local quilt shop, Sew Modern, and there got the advice and idea to accent with Moleskin fabric. I picked a solid charcoal color. Then I added in some of my favorite old fake herringbone tweed cotton that I have yards of here at home and I cranked on this gorgeous bag and presented it to my husband on Valentine's Day.

 

I have to say, it's the nicest thing I have ever sewn for him. His comment.... "Wow. That does not look homemade. It looks like something they would sell at Fred Segal" - kind of a mega-compliment in my book.

I liked his bag so much (more even than my own!) that I used it to travel to Quiltcon. While traveling with it, I learned even more how much I loved this bag. All the pockets! The straps! The style!

And the whole guy factor is such a major bonus for me. I mean, how many quilted items can you really give the men in your life? Only a few. Well, this is one of them.  But then again, I'm feeling like this bag would also look SO GOOD in metallic linen... hmmmm....

 So now it's your turn! You know you want to make one... You can buy the pattern in the Rebel Craft Media shop - www.rebelcraftmedia.com/shop - The pattern is being released in a few days on April 1 and there's even a sew-along on the Rebel Craft blog that starts on April 2. (Pre-order sales for the pattern started March 17th - you can buy it and get the materials list before the pattern is released so that you can assemble your supplies)
Also check out this hashtag - #thebetsytravelbag to see other people's pics of the bag - some of the details are best understood by looking at what the bag looks like finished.
oh - and here are the other bloggers to visit on the Blog Hop - read about their experiences with the fantastic Betsy Travel Bag!

Blog    Hop   Tour:

March 17
• Rebel    Craft    Media
• Schnitzel    &    Boo
• Snuggly    Monkey

March    19: 
• Daisy    &    Jack

March    21:
• I’m    A    Ginger    Monkey

March    23: 
• Don’t    Call    Me    Betsy

March    25: 
• Libby    Dibby   

March    27: 
• Euphoria    Jessica

March    29:
• Karri    of    Berries

March    31:
• Rebel    Craft    Media    (photo    roundup)

Creating with creativity

I'm committing to this idea of not making something that doesn't have my voice in it in some form. Im tired of making things that anyone else could have made. I'm not saying that every single project has to have improvisational piecing... Or curves, or hand quilting or lots of grays and reds... Maybe the only thing that says I made it is the way I put the colors together, but I think I'm tired of making the same stuff as anyone else. I am an artist with a voice that I already know how to express, so why have I not been doing that? These are the thoughts floating around in my head this week...

This little pillow has spring out of that internal conversation. It's an old block I made with scraps... It was sitting in my studio over a year... Just sitting. And with about 3 hours of work, I have finished it and made it something I am proud of.

I feel like I want to ask myself ... What makes this project "Libby" - this one? It's the analogous color scheme... The way I always put colors in families. There's a little bit of improv in the way I put the log cabin together and the hand quilting was very spontaneous in its construction.

I don't really know if anyone is reading these posts, but if you are, I'm curious to know what you would define as YOUR voice in a project.

New quilts and saying goodby to old habits

Lots of sewing. In the past two days, I've dealt with stuff by sewing. It's the old joke that my sewing machine is the one thing in my life that I feel I can truly control.
So in 48 hours, I've made 3 baby quilt tops.... I've also basted two of those and a twin sized quilt (an old unfinished one that I started in my first months of quilting -it's really boring compared to what I want to be making) ... And now I've quilted two of the baby quilts and this orphan block which is destined to become a pillow....I've even attached bindings too. Tons of really brainless sewing... My new machine has arrived and I have a load of new ideas I want to try out, but I didn't have space to put it in the studio without clearing up some space first... I think I needed the mental space too. I haven't made a quilt in many months and need to get a bit reacquainted with the process.

I've been thinking a lot about my process too. Going to Quiltcon was really good for me this last month because I became more clear on the path I want to take as I move forward in my quilting. For years, I have put off my most creative ideas as I have cranked through fabric that people have given me... For some reason, gifted random fabric has always screamed at me loudest - "use me up! Find a use for me!" Even louder than fabrics that I treasure and bought myself. Perhaps I just wanted to use things before they go to waste. A part of me looks at the challenge and says... "Can you make something good or even beautiful from something you don't like?"
But I'm tired of that process now.
I want to work with things that inspire me now... And I'm getting tired of never using what I love the most... These quilts have been a good exercise for me to realize that just scrapping along isn't doing it for me anymore. My most favorite quilts started with a true idea and even when they were done, I wanted to make them again. So these 4-5 little projects here are a bit of a swan song to my old process. And I like that.

I just need to hold myself to it.